This invention relates generally to apparatus for use in conjunction with a transport means such as a tractor or harvester to uproot row crops prior to harvesting, or for use in cultivating row crops at any time during the growth cycle of the plant, and to a method of using same.
Rotating square bars and the like have heretofore been used in conjunction with tractors and harvesters to uproot row crops prior to harvesting. Such uprooting prior to harvesting enables the crop plants to wilt to a certain degree and thus foster removal of the product to be harvested from the plant stalk. Additionally, various and sundry type cutters such as discs, shearing blades and the like have likewise been used to sever crops above and beneath the soil prior to harvesting the products grown thereon.
Problems have in general existed with most of the prior art devices. The cutting or severing type devices have been limited to operation in fields where the soil is in a generally dry state. Rotating bars utilized have been confronted with limitations as to speed of harvesting due to entanglement of foliage around the bars. In a companion application being filed concurrently herewith, a self-cleaning rotating bar arrangement is provided that overcomes the necessity for interrupting the harvesting to clean the bars.
The present invention affords still further improvement in the art, in that, the cantilevered bars of the present invention can be self-cleaning, and further can also be used to cultivate a row crop, while avoiding any damage to the crop plants grown along the row. At the same time, apparatus embodying the principles of the present invention is economical, quite effective and very reliable.